illard's mom (Ms. Burroughs) knows there are rats in the basement of the gloomy old Gothic pile she shares with her spectacularly disturbed grown son (Mr. Glover). So Willard checks out the Decon and buys a couple of dozen rat traps. That night all are tripped but trap nary a rat. The next night glue paper works a little better, ensnaring one small white one.

Willard has untold issues, and let's leave it at that. He takes a shine to the rodent, which he names Socrates. In fact, Willard all but falls in love with Socrates and coos his devotion until all hours. But then across the room he spies another rat about the size of a jack rabbit. That's a little alarming but cool. He names it Ben. He's certain Socrates and Ben will be friends. We aren't so sure.

In the basement Willard is now feeding the rats, and there is no shortage of takers. He discovers they like to tear up things, which kind of appeals to Willard. Smaller rats shred a newspaper. Ben rips up a tire. At work Willard is abused by a crude tyrant of a boss (Mr. Ermey), so he packs a couple of satchels full of rats and takes them to the man's house and has them chew up the tires of his Mercedes.

Back home things are getting out of hand. Mom is a decrepit crone who looks half-eaten even before she is found dead on the cellar steps. We know how rats multiply, but this is ridiculous. After a particularly humiliating bawling-out by his boss, Willard leads a couple of million of them over to the office for an after-hours visit. But back home he finds himself besieged. One thing for sure: duct tape doesn't work.